FOND DU LAC, Wis. (SabreAthletics.com) – The Marian University women's volleyball team dropped a four-set battle to visiting Concordia University Wisconsin (19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-19) despite taking the first set from the Falcons, inside Sadoff Gymnasium, this evening, Oct. 23.

The Sabres were led by sophomore Anna Smit, who tallied five of her match-high 11 kills in the opening set win. Her play jump started an offense looking for momentum, but it just wasn't enough to overcome the Falcons, who clinched a NACC tournament berth with tonight's victory.

CUW survived a second set win in which it hit for a negative percentage, but they were able to get contributions from all over the floor with Jessica Eggebrecht and Ashley Faber totaling 10 kills each, while four others recorded seven or more kills.

The Falcons improved to 12-15 overall, 6-4 in the NACC, while the Sabres dropped to 8-19 (3-7 NACC).

The Falcons claimed the first point of the match when a Sabre attack error gave their counterparts an early advantage. After that, however, it was all Marian, which rallied off several points to gain the advantage and never looked back. The Sabres closed out the first set with a 5-1 run on a Smit kill.

The second set started off similarly, but CUW strung together a rally that put them ahead 16-11 before the Sabres were forced to call timeout. The Falcons would stretch the lead to seven points before the Sabres began to creep back in it. Trailing 23-17, Marian scored six of the next seven points to come within one, but Britta Duchow put down one of her eight kills in the match to seal the set win.

The next two sets went handily to the Falcons with Carley Valentine leading the way by posting a double-double with 30 assists and 15 digs to go along with seven kills.

Marian sophomore Casey Lamberty finished one kill shy of her eighth double-double of the year. Sophomore Katrina Jansen had an impressive performance defensively, tying a career-high with 28 digs.

Morgan Dercks and Jordan Menges split the setting duties with 18 and 16 assists, respectively.

The Sabres will now look to Senior Day against MSOE (10-13, 4-6 NACC) this Saturday, Oct. 26, needing a win to earn a NACC tournament berth as they trail the Raiders by a single game in the league standings with one conference match remaining. Start time is set for 1 p.m. inside Sadoff Gymnasium.